Video games are well known in the home entertainment industry. Within this general field, there exists numerous interactive sports games, including baseball, football, basketball, soccer and other sports, and a large number of fantasy and adventure games.
The “rules” governing the play of such video games, as well as the characteristics, abilities and other features of each of the characters in the games, are maintained in the software control system portion of the game. The characters include actual sports and action figures as well as fantasy figures. The software control system controls a display, such as a TV monitor, as the game is played. Typically, the characteristics of the individual characters (whether they be actual characteristics or fantasy) are established in the software and cannot be changed.
Board games are also well known in the home entertainment industry. The individual characters used in board games have certain well-defined characteristics which are set forth in the rules of the game. The characters are moved about in accordance with a roll of the dice, a spinner or similar element. The capabilities of the characters cannot be changed by the players.
Trading cards are another well-known entertainment medium; trading cards typically feature sports figures, but can certainly include characters in other fields as well, including fictional/fantasy characters such as Pokemon characters. Trading cards typically contain information about the actual sports figure or other character featured on the cards. The value of trading cards is dependent upon the rarity of the cards. In some instances, there has been a crossover between trading cards and board games; and in at least one case, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,259, which is owned by the assignee of the present invention, trading cards have been used as the informational basis for a sports-based video game in which each player selects a team based on the trading cards they possess. Information concerning the player featured on each of the cards used in the game is provided to the software control system and the game is then played, using the performance information on the selected cards.
Hence, trading cards have not only inherent value when considered as individual cards, or as part of a collection, but also can be used as a part of a video game, in particular a video game which involves a set of characters selected by each player in turn.
However, it is understood that there are significant limitations on such known systems. For instance, there are limitations on the use of trading cards in the video game. Further, in some games, it is important to be able to authenticate the ownership of the trading cards prior to starting the game, as well as a desire to be able to register the trading cards with a central organization, so that the cards may be readily bought and sold, even during the playing of the game, which would add to the players' ability to affect the game being played. Current systems do not have such capability.
There is also the desire to expand the trading card concept into games beyond sports and individual players into fantasy and/or adventure games. It would in some cases be desirable to have the capability of affecting the rules and/or other conditions of the game during the playing of the game, as well as the capability of affecting the abilities and characteristics of the characters actually in the game, such as by the possession or acquisition and subsequent playing of selected additional trading cards. In such an instance, the core value or features of the game remain, but certain aspects thereof are enhanced.
Still further, in some cases, it is desirable to maintain trading cards used in a game in a “mint” or even uncirculated condition, either by the player or by another entity, so that the value of the card is maintained even though the card is used to play the game. In general, it is desirable to expand the ability, flexibility and use of trading cards in the video game context.